“President Blatter is committed to clearing his name,” reads a statement Wednesday from Blatter’s lawyers, who include former Virginia attorney general Richard Cullen.

“President Blatter will continue his appeals and looks forward to the opportunity to be heard, including through the presentation of evidence and argument of counsel, and thereby demonstrate he has engaged in no misconduct,” the statement says.

FIFA’s suspension of its own longtime boss and other executives are separate from the ongoing criminal prosecutions based in the United States and Switzerland that have uncovered the robust system of bribery, kickbacks, and secret deal-making that appear to have determined distribution of multimillion-dollar television broadcast rights and the locations of World Cup tournaments.

Suspended with Blatter on Oct. 7 was the Frenchman who once appeared a likely heir to Blatter atop the Zurich-based governing body, Michel Platini, who for years has led UEFA, the FIFA-affiliated confederation overseeing European soccer.

Sepp Blatter vows to keep fighting after FIFA rejects his appeal of a 90-day ban.

(FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images)

The FIFA appeal committee announced Tuesday it had rejected appeals by Blatter and Platini of their 90-day bans, noting that FIFA’s internal procedures are still ongoing and that what the troubled organization calls “the adjudicatory chamber of the independent ethics committee” may still “confirm, revoke or amend the provisional decision.”

FIFA is trying to right its own ship with a presidential election and a package of institutional reforms due next year, while a chorus of soccer activists around the world claim that the organization is incapable of policing itself.

“The Appeal Committee rendered this decision on Nov. 3 but released it only today, over two weeks later,” noted Cullen, Blatter’s attorney. “President Blatter is committed to clearing his name and hopes this inexplicable delay is not an effort to deny him, during his elected term, a fair hearing before a neutral body.”

Blatter was re-elected as the body’s president last May just days after a wave of arrests and corruption charges rocked the group he’d led for 17 years. He soon promised to step down and a handful of candidates are lined up for a Feb. 26 vote to succeed him.

FIFA’s interim president, 69-year-old Issa Hayatou of Cameroon, underwent successful kidney transplant surgery last week. As a FIFA executive committee member for 25 years, Hayatou has seen more than half of his former colleagues on the executive committee arrested, suspended, or turned into cooperating witnesses.